174 TRAINING THE HUNTING DOG 



ing him when at the proper distance at the end of 

 them. This is continued day after day till the dog- 

 will, from mere habit, follow the artificial range thus 

 established. It requires a world of labor and pa- 

 tience to teach it thoroughly. After it is taught it 

 has certain spectacular features which appeal to the 

 novice, but which to the expert suggest a worthless 

 redundancy of effort. 



The theory of brace work when the dogs quarter 

 their ground is that they work on wider parallels in 

 their casts, which alternate so that neither works on 

 the other's ground except when turning at the end of 

 their casts. They should cross in front of their 

 handler at about the same time, should cast about the 

 same distance to the right and left, and should make 

 their turns at the ends of their casts at about the 

 same moment. To approximate, even remotely, to 

 this degree of refinement, the dog must work inde- 

 pendently, must be nearly equal in pace and industry, 

 and in general must have the same ideas of quarter- 

 ing; in short, they must be fairly well matched. 



Dogs develop idiosyncrasies in quartering as they 

 do in free ranging. One may cast well on one side, 

 turning up wind properly, while at the end of his cast 



